Social Ministry Outreach

Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota 

Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota is the largest, statewide non-profit social service organization in the state with over 2,200 employees who serve in 300 communities.

Lakeville Resource Center – serves those in need and to eliminate hunger in Dakota County. Eagan/Lakeville Resource Center is the largest food shelf in Dakota County serving Eagan, Lakeville, Burnsville, Apple Valley, Rosemount and Farmington. Families select their own food—no pre-bagged food valuing wholesome, nutritious foods for families and offer milk, eggs, dairy, meat, chicken, fish, bakery fruits and vegetables. Both the Eagan and Lakeville Resource Centers are members of Second Harvest Heartland and Emergency Foodshelf network food banks.

Armful of Love Just as Community Action Council's network of food shelves are much more than feeding the hungry, Armful of Love does more than help provide gifts during the holidays.  One prong of CAC's mission is to help people achieve long-term self-sufficiency and Armful of Love is the beginning of that process. CAC's family support workers spend time with each family needing help to find out how they got to this point, and how we can help them stabilize their situation and become economically successful.  Many families continue working with other CAC services and community resources to ensure that next year, they will be in a better position to provide their own holiday gifts and household necessities. Usually people just need a little help during a crisis to get set on the right path again.

Sharing and Caring Hands  
Sharing and Caring Hands is a compassionate response to the needs of the poor. They are set up to be a safety net organization to help with whatever needs are not being met. This includes but is not limited to providing meals, clothing, showers, shelter, transportation help, rent deposits, rent help, medical assistance, dental care, furniture, school expenses, funeral assistance, and other miscellaneous needs. 
Sharing and Caring Hands provides these with dignity, while affirming God's love for all his people regardless of their circumstances 


Loaves and fishes 

Loaves & Fishes provides nutritious meals to the hungry of the Twin City Metro area in an atmosphere of hospitality at site locations where the need is greatest and develops joint ventures/partnerships with like-minded organizations to assist guests with additional basic needs and to becoming self-sufficient.

Habitat for Humanity 

Habitat for Humanity International is a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry. HFHI seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world, and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action.

Habitat invites people of all backgrounds, races and religions to build houses together in partnership with families in need.
Habitat has built more than 250,000 houses around the world, providing more than 1 million people in more than 3,000 communities with safe, decent, affordable shelter. 


Saint Paul Area Synod  The Saint Paul Area Synod is one of 65 synods in the ELCA and the second largest in the number of baptized members. Comprising the eastern half of the metropolitan area of the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, it includes 109 congregations, five congregations under development, and two synodically authorized worshiping communities in Chisago, Dakota, Ramsey, and Washington counties and parts of Anoka, Scott, and Isanti counties in Minnesota.

Greater Minneapolis Crisis Nursery   

Greater Minneapolis Crisis Nursery is a warm, loving, and safe place where kids get to be kids while their parents take care of a family emergency. The Nursery gives parents a supportive, safe, and non-shaming environment in which to ask for help. GMCN supports families in crisis 24 hours a day, 365 days a year through our free, voluntary services

Bridging, Inc . 

Bridging is a non-profit operating 100,000 square feet of warehouse in Bloomington and Roseville and provides service to a 24 county area.  Bridging serves approximately 130 households a week and operates with a small paid staff of 28 employees and relies upon over 7,000 individual and group volunteers who donate over 90,000 hours annually. Bridging is environmentally friendly, recycling over 100,000 items annually. Each household receives an average of $2,000 in furniture and household goods during their visit.

World Hunger   

For the past 32 years, since its founding in 1976, the mission of World Hunger Education Service is to undertake programs, including Hunger Notes, which: inform the community of people interested in issues of hunger and poverty, the public, and policymakers, about the causes, extent, and efforts to end hunger and poverty in the United States and the world; further understanding, which integrates ethical, religious, social, economic, political, and scientific perspectives on hunger and poverty; facilitate communication and networking among those who are working for solutions; and promote individual and collective commitment to solutions to the hunger and poverty that confront hundreds of millions of the people of the world.

Tumaini University, Iringa University College  This college, originally known as Lutheran College – Iringa, is one of the five campuses of Tumaini University in Tanzania and is located in Iringa.  In July of 1993, at the inception of the college, the student population was 30 and all of them were theological students.  Today there are 2,700 students on campus.  There are 94 full-time and 4 part-time faculty in ten different areas of study, with most of the professors being Tanzanian.  The Saint Paul Area Synod of the ELCA has had a significant role in the development of this university.  Since the beginning St. John’s Church has donated $1,000 per year in support of this development.